Does vacation enable recuperation? Changes in well-being associated with time away from work

The objective of this paper was to study the change of well-being associate d with vacation and the effect of vacation related variables on these chang es. Fifty-three employees (16 women, 37 men) of a medium sized aluminium ha rdware manufacturer in Austria participated. Measures were taken 10 days be fore and 3 days after vacation. A small follow-up group at 5 weeks post-vac ation was included. Three days after vacation, physical complaints, the qua lity of sleep and mood had improved as compared to before vacation. Average life satisfaction did not change during vacation. Five weeks after vacatio n subjects still reported less physical complaints than before vacation. Th e experienced recuperation during vacation explained 56% of the variance re garding the change of well-being. Moderating variables of recuperation were the amount of personally available time and vacation satisfaction. Further more, the number of stressful days at home were associated negatively, whil e the number of non-stressful days at home and the number of days away from home correlated moderately positively with recuperation. The study indicat es that vacation may improve well-being on a short term basis.